Range Anxiety and non-Teslas

In our case, the EV is the primary car and used 90% of the time, for around town and short trips. The ICE car is our secondary vehicle and needed for off-road to our cabin, as well as long trips.

 

This is the hardest thing to convince EV skeptics about, having an EV requires a different mode of thinking but if the situation were reversed and everyone drove EV's and you were trying to convince someone to try an ICE car it would be the same problem.

 

I have a Kona EV and the range of 258 miles is underrated. Even at 70 mph I can get a about 250 miles range. While the rated range of the Kona EV is 72 miles less than the long range Tesla, in real world tests, the Kona either beats the long range Tesla or comes within 20 miles of the long range Tesla. I never have issues getting charged up. Sure, it charges slower than a Tesla but in about 40 mins or less on Electrify, you should be able to get to 80%. I usually stop for food and bathroom breaks anyways every couple of hours, so I don't see it as a big deal. I don't have any range anxiety. I do plan my trips.. Takes a couple of minutes to plan out charging stops or you could just use Abetterrouteplanner app..

 

It has been that way for ages with "range anxiety". When the max range was maybe 100 miles, people would say, they need 200 (I could get that - a car with a 100 mile range was basically limited to act as a commuter car). And when 200 became common, they said they needed 300. And now that that's realistic, I hear people some people say when they can get 400 or 500 miles they will switch. In a sense it is more "change anxiety".

That's sort of our role as early adopters - I was talking with a friend just a few weeks ago, and they asked me how many times I stop to charge when I drive into DC (mind you, that's only 150 miles). They just assumed that you needed to. Hell, I can *almost* make the round trip without any charging along the way.

The batteries aren't cheap (although they get better and cheaper as time goes on), and for that matter, they aren't light either. There are big trade-offs to adding range just by adding more batteries.

 

I think a lot of people don't really understand current EVs. My Kona's real-world range is not much less than an ICE car's. And you can't fill up an ICE car with gas at home while you sleep. Yeah, major trips take a bit of planning, but in large parts of the country it's not a huge deal anymore, and getting steadily better.

 

I think people get it more than you think - especially on the lack of infrastructure. It takes two seconds to demonstrate that all around town driving can easily be made with an EV. I’ve gotten my whole family convinced on that.

Most people’s range anxiety comes from traveling longer distances because the coverage of DCFC stations is very spotty. I’ve gotten a friend of mine sold on getting an EV for the most part, but he needs a couple more locations with DCFC to do 100% of his driving with one. He jokes that he’ll be driving an EV before me because he doesn’t drive as much as I do (I travel a lot for work and many of the destinations have no DCFC).

Why do I think DCFC matters so much? Well, nobody wants to sit and wait for four hours to get half a charge with a Level 2 charger. That’s really inconvenient. Same with Level 1.

The harder convincing part comes with battery longevity. The warranties help, but people always ask about the cost of battery replacement. I don’t really have a good answer for that because it technically can be considered a scheduled maintenance item - although closer to the end of life for the car maybe.

 

It reminds me a bit of someone we know who got a big SUV. Only because once a year or so, she might have company, and might need to haul people around. So she got something that could cover every case she could imagine.

 

Lol. I learned to drive with a 12 seat passenger van. I come from a pretty big family and my mother carpooled other kids around, so we used the whole van seating capacity often.

I can’t imagine buying a car with way more capacity than you need. There are several times a year where it would make sense for me to have a truck, but I don’t think it’s worth getting a truck over that.

 

I kept my F150 Crew Cab for a while as I have to haul stuff from time to time. However, having a $15k truck in the garage for hauling things around town 3 - 4 times per year is not a good idea, so I sold it.. Luckily, we still have our 2008 Dodge Grand Caravan which used to be my wife's car before the BMW i3. It has 207k miles and is worth nothing. Makes no sense in selling it.. So, what I did was to buy a trailer hitch and wiring for the minivan and use it to tow our trailer (with 10 ft x 4.5 ft loading surface). Sure, I'm limited to about 1500 lbs in payload but that's all I need.. If I ever need more, I'll rent a truck. The only expense for the minivan is the annual insurance bill... probably $500 per year..

 

Admittedly there are some people for whom an EV isn't yet right -- it can be complicated for people who can't charge at home, or for those who frequently need to drive hundreds of miles at a time in regions where fast chargers are scarce. But I think the percentage of folks with these problems is shrinking. If every apartment garage just had simple wall sockets available, I think EV adoption in urban areas would take off.